NEW YORK (AP) - Officials are facing questions over the expected $60 million-a-year operating budget of the national Sept. 11 memorial and museum at ground zero.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday called the memorial's operating cost a necessity for security and other costs unique to hosting millions of visitors a year on the reborn site of two terrorist attacks.

Some congressional Democrats underscored their efforts to help get federal money to cover some of the operating cost, while a Republican senator reiterated his opposition.

Even some victims' family members are divided over whether the annual price tag represents the price of paying tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost or the cost of unnecessary grandeur.